Happy 30th birthday, BBC Micro

We learn from the BBC that the BBC Micro is now a venerable 30 years old. This machine was instrumental in enthusing many of today’s more senior programmers in getting into coding.

BBC Micro - 30 years young. Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

The BBC Micro was series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the Beeb. Although designed with an emphasis on education, it was notable for its ruggedness, expandability and the quality of its operating system.

9 models were eventually produced with the BBC brand, the term “BBC Micro” is usually colloquially used to refer to the first six (Model A, B, B+64 and B+128, Master 128, Master Compact), with the subsequent models considered as part of the Archimedes series.